Sustainability Technology & The Evolution of Smart Cities

Tag: #agriculture

Sustainability Problem: Water shortages due to anthropogenic forces and natural variations in climate patterns.

Technology: These sensors made using an ink from carbon nanotubes dissolved in an organic compound called sodium dodecyl sulfate, were created my MIT engineers. They can be printed on plant leaf pores, creating an electronic circuit warning when a water shortage may be coming thus alerting farmers that their crops are in danger giving them time to plan solutions. Plant stomata responds to light, to carbon dioxide concentration and to drought, which can be monitored more closely for better agricultural practices.

Food & beverage and other industries with large agriculture supply chain

Sustainable investors

Developing countries concerned with drought and flooding

Consumers

Implementation:

Continue researching into whether detection of water stress can be earlier than 2 days. Also continue research into creating arrays of these sensors that could be used to detect light and capture images like a camera and create a database.

Encourage those concerned climate change effects on agriculture, to invest and run pilot projects for these sensors.

Bring this technology to market and determine where else in agriculture it can be used.

The mesh in the catch bag is made from recycled plastic mesh, and currently recycled HDPE ocean plastics are also being trialed in the production of the Seabins to see what content recycled material vs. virgin materials they can utilize. Creating this product with more oil absorption technology would be even more beneficial. My two questions are: What is done with the debris collected from these mesh bags and how much more efficient is this catch bag in comparison to other technologies currently on the market?

Livestock farming has an enormous impact on climate change. In Argentina, livestock agriculture is prominent with over 51.2 million cows residing in the country. In the United States, methane emissions from animals contribute to 22% of our greenhouse gas emissions. With that being said, methane is also one of the most impactful GHG’s. It is estimated that one cow produces enough methane in a year to do the same amount of damage as 4 tons of carbon dioxide.

The Paris Agreement called for a GHG reduction to prevent the Earth’s temperature rising an additional 2°C compared to temperatures from before the industrial revolution. In order for this to happen, livestock agriculture will have to make strides to reducing their emissions. Aside from the population becoming vegan, there have not been many solutions put forward to make an impact up until recently.

The National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) has created a backpack to mitigate climate change by capturing methane emissions from cows. The backpack would be worn on the cow and captures methane by inserting a tube into the cow’s rumen, or a digestive organ where the gas is produced. Researchers say this does not harm the cow and would capture up to 300 liters of methane per day. This methane can then be condensed and used as fuel for “light” activities such as cooking or lighting.

Although this seems like a humorous solution, it is encouraging to see INTA taking a stab at the methane problem!

Check out my notes below for a summary of the details.

Sustainability Problem: Energy and Climate Change

The following bullet points summarize Argentina’s invention:

Methane produced by cows as a result of digestion accounts for 25% of all methane emissions in the atmosphere

On average, one cow produces 300 liters of methane per day

The INTA created a backpack that is inserted through the cow’s skin which captures gases emitted through its mouth or intestinal tract

The backpack collects the methane and it is then condensed and used to power activities such as cooking, lighting, or driving a car

Organizational stakeholders that would be involved in this technology are:

National Institute of Agricultural Technology of Argentina

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Local farmers in Argentina

Facilities Management Team

The following steps should be taken to deploy this technology:

INTA should test this technology on a few local farms in Argentina.

This technology could be introduced on a continental or international stage at the UN, to debate the efficacy and legality of using this on animals.

Lastly, management teams can be established to discuss maintenance and implementation of these on farms.

Technology solution: PROTEON, a pharmaceutical company based in Poland, has developed bacteriophages in feed to target infections in fish poultry that works as an alternative to antibiotics. Antibiotics usually kill and target all bacteria inside the animal’s gut, even the beneficial bacteria, whereas bacteriophages target specific bacteria and don’t require animal to be in quarantine after treatment.

Place or register products in various markets: BAFASAL® for poultry which eliminates human-pathogenic Salmonella in poultry farming. BAFADOR®, for commercial aquaculture which eliminates Pseudomonas and Aeromonas infections.

Continue looking for funding to commercialize products globally and develop production capacity.

Figure out how to get around challenges for producing at scale.

Reply to post, Ahmad Al Zubair (aa4098):

From a sustainable development standpoint, this is a great idea to implement solution for education and water sanitation. The pages are made from cellulose, which is a good alternative to using trees and perhaps more alternatives can be thought of for the future scalability of this project. I’m concerned about how we would know when a person is running out of pages. The estimate of a book lasting 4 years is vague and depends on the person. Perhaps pairing this with a microchip sensor that sends warnings to teams notifying them of a need in supply might be an effective solution to add? It would also be great if the educational information was available in multiple language, or perhaps in both the native tongue and English to improve language learning.

Over five years ago now I was on top of a brand new high school in Southern Minnesota looking over the barren roof. Modern HVAC equipment has been centralized leaving roofs pretty much empty. One option to cover the rooftops is Solar PV, but for organizations that serve food, such as schools, the best option may be to grow the food for their cafeterias on-site utilizing hydroponics.

Hydroponics allow for growing without soil, meaning crops can grow virtually anywhere, provided water, nutrients, and light. Plants get exactly the right amount of water and nutrients and, since the growing season is year-round if placed in a greenhouse, yields can be 10-20 times the amount per land area depending on the crop. Again depending on the crop, 60-90% less water is used.

Growing on-site reduces the food-mileage to zero, however that doesn’t necessarily remove the carbon-footprint. A lot of electricity is used to grow the crops and depending on distance from the normal source of food and source of electricity GHG emissions could go up, or they could go down significantly. Typically, areas in the Northeast would see a dramatic decrease in carbon-footprint.

While a school was the initial inspiration of the idea, there are a lot of vertical markets that could use hydroponics: healthcare, K-12, Universities, Stadiums, and any other vertical market served by the food service industry.

I actually started a company to do this, but didn’t have much success selling the idea. Mostly the problem was the business skills and financial backing I lacked. From trying to sell this idea for a year or so, though, there’s lots of obstacles to maneuver from the customer side. First is finding a customer that will like to be the first to do this. Next is to find one that is willing to invest immediately. I didn’t want to deal with the growing of the food, just selling the development and installation of the hydroponic systems. The payback for the customer can range from 1 to 5 years depending on the crop, location, size of system, etc. There’s other business plans that might work, though, such as leasing the system or installing on-site and contracting the food.

For me, personally, this is a dream and I took a job where I still have the possibility of promoting this idea. It’s going to be a long winding road, though!

Comment on “Connected Rooftop Units Learn to Maintain and Monitor Indoor Air Quality.”

Great Find! From my perspective, as an Energy Engineer that worked with RTUs for several years, there’s a lot of opportunity for improvement in RTU technology. Also, these units cover virtually all vertical markets and this technology can be marketed to those. The best opportunity would be to retrofit existing units with IoT controls. Again, great find!

The Sentera Double 4K is a small, fully customizable twin-imager sensor that is universally compatible with any UAV. Fitting in the footprint of a GoPro® HERO 4, the rugged, high-throughput Double 4K Sensor is designed for use in harsh environments with configuration options that make it ideal for use in agriculture and infrastructure inspection applications. Both cameras are capable of capturing high-megapixel color stills, near-infrared (NIR), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data, and 4K video.

The intelligence provided by this sensor makes it ideal for Universities, researchers, large growers, and advisors to provide high-precision, low-distortion vegetative health data tailored for unique applications.

Use the mobile app to document + precisely locate weeds, compaction, growth stages + more. Photos live with aerial data to give you a complete picture of your operation, top to bottom. Our iOS mobile app also allows you to autonomously fly a host of DJI products!

Stakeholder:

Sentera Company

Farmers/Agriculture sectors

Energy Companies/Sector

Universities

Community

Deployment/Implementation

Attract more investors for the drones and sensors from different sectors

Advertise all the different capabilities across all sectors of the drones and sensors emphasizing agriculture and infrastructure inspection applications

Train buyers in implementing the most sustainable solutions tailored to their needs

The United Nations estimates the world population will increase to 9.6 billion people by 2050. A population rise is be accompanied with growing concerns about resource usage such as water, food, energy, and housing. The RIPE Project is sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

1. Sustainability Problem: Health & Water

2. The following bullet points summarizes sustainability technology that addresses health and water:

A project called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) is a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The team is using genetic engineering technology to maximize the photosynthetic capabilities of tobacco

Their goal is to increase crop yields and efficiency by targeting inefficiencies in the plant metabolism

RIPE is engineering three genes that express how light is processed

Thus far, they have increased tobacco yields in a greenhouse by 20%

3. Organizational Stakeholders: Once the RIPE team assembles a procedure that can be reproduced in mass with different plant species, a number of stakeholders will be necessary to implement this technology.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization can use their involvement to bring policy to the mainstream regarding genetically engineered foods internationally.

Public Private Partnerships can be used to make technology more affordable.

4. The first step in deploying this technology can be deployed by bringing this to the UNFAO to encourage international acceptance of this technology as a solution to the food crisis as population rises. Following this, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation can create a protocol and continue their research with other essential food crops. A team of educational stakeholders should be assembled to encourage genetic engineering at universities.

Check out the link to the article below to check out more images and information.

Sustainability Technology: Designer Davorin Mesari has created an indoor garden made up of 16 individual growing pods, allowing city dwellers with minimal space to grow fruits and vegetable. The growing units are stackable, so output can be doubled without compromising precious urban space.

Sustainability Problem: Access to Healthy Foods

According to Harvard’s School of Public Health’s website, “A diet rich in vegetables and fruits can lower blood pressure, reduce risk of heart disease and stroke, prevent some types of cancer, lower risk of eye and digestive problems, and have a positive effect upon blood sugar which can help keep appetite in check.” They confirm that while all fruits and vegetables contribute to health benefits, “green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and mustard greens” are some of the most important health contributors. Despite these findings, many urban dwellers find themselves too busy to cook a healthy meal and rely instead on take out, delivery, or processed foods which are often unhealthy. More often than not, these items are packaged in such a way that contribute to negative environmental impacts. Davorin Mesari’s innovative product, aptly named ‘Indoor Garden’ allows city residents to grow produce healthy food in the comfort of their apartments. This inventive technology creates an indoor modern garden that is powered by fluorescent lighting which mimics the natural solar spectrum allowing urban denizens to grow their own healthy vegetables and greens at home without creating unnecessary waste, and thus making the production of a healthy meal not only easy but more accessible.

Davorin Mesari’s state-of-the-art technology could be implemented in a central setting, such as a school or community center, as an urban agricultural project offering locally grown produce into a food desert, or area where there is limited access to healthy, fresh food. One issue with urban farming is finding the land on which to farm and ensuring that the soil is not contaminated. With ‘Indoor Garden,’ you don’t need to find land on which to farm or worry about soil as the units come with growing pods and are stackable to maximize indoor space. Moreover, these units can serve as educational devices, and, once installed, can showcase the cultivation, harvesting, and the preparation of healthy meals.

Technology Stakeholders:

Urban Residents

Schools

Community Centers

Urban Farmers

Farm to Table Enthusiasts

Process of Implementation:

Step 1: Introduce this new technology through an educational workshop to a community group or school and describe the feasibility of implementation.

Step 2: Based on local interest and available funding, establish a site for implementation.

Step 3: Work with local businesses to attract further financing (if necessary) by creating excitement around the new technology.

Step 4: Once funds are raised and site is established, buy 5 units for testing and establish a protocol to ensure maintenance of product.

Step 5: Collect feedback from community group/school and establish ways to enhance the next phase or implementation at a second site.